GOP Transparency?

RELEASE: Will Domenici Jr. Keep His Promise to File Monthly Finance Reports?

Weh and Turner Still Considering Whether to Run Transparent Campaigns?

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – More than a month after Pete Domenici Jr.’s campaign said that disclosing its campaign donors monthly “is just no problem” because “we want more transparency into campaign contributions,” the campaign continues to run in the dark, failing to disclose it’s donors or campaign expenditures. GOP candidate Allen Weh is still “considering” disclosing his campaign contributions andDoug Turner has said “maybe” to running an open and transparent campaign.

“The Republican candidates for Governor like to talk about openness and transparency, but when given an opportunity to walk the walk, the majority of GOP candidates continue to run their campaigns in the dark,” said Scott Forrester, DPNM Executive Director. “Everyone is left wondering what these candidates are hiding?”

The Facts:

Domenici Jr. Campaign Promised Bi-Weekly Or Monthly Finance Reporting. According to Pete St. Cyr, “After we originally published our blog we received an email from campaign coordinator Doug Antoon, who clarified the campaign’s plan for financial reporting. ‘I would like to shoot for semi-monthly or bi-weekly if we can handle the paperwork and have the people available to post everything on that timetable. But monthly is just no problem,’ Antoon wrote. ‘We want more transparency into campaign contributions, not less.’” [Blog, What’s the word with Pete St. Cyr, 1/17/10]

January 2010: Weh Campaign Said He Was “Considering” Voluntarily Releasing Campaign Finance Reports. According to the Heath Haussamen blog, “Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh says he may join other candidates who have chosen to voluntarily release campaign finance reports this month. ‘We’re considering it,’ Weh spokesman Christopher Sanchez wrote this morning in an e-mail. He had no further comment. Weh joins Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Turner in not giving a definite answer (Turner said ‘maybe’ earlier this week) to the question I’ve been asking about whether gubernatorial candidates would voluntarily release a finance report this month for the fourth quarter of 2009. Weh is the last gubernatorial candidate to provide some kind of answer.” [The New Mexican Independent, 1/21/10]

Turner Said “Maybe” To Reporting Campaign Finance Early. According to the Heath Haussamen blog, “Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Turner doesn’t have plans to release a campaign finance report to the public until the next one is required on April 12 – but he’s also not entirely closing the door on doing it sooner. ‘I would imagine we’ll report in April when it’s appropriate,’ Turner told NMPolitics.net’s Peter St. Cyr…Turner was speaking at a tax protest outside the Roundhouse that he held with former Gov. Gary Johnson. ‘Maybe we’ll do it earlier,’ Turner said of releasing a finance report.” [Blog, Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics, 1/19/10]

Turner Said He Had No Resistance To Reporting Campaign Finance Early; Said He Would Self-Fund Significant Part Of Campaign. According to Heath Haussamen’s blog, “Meanwhile, three other gubernatorial candidates — Democrat Diane Denish and Republicans Susana Martinez and Janice Arnold-Jones — have already gone beyond what the law requires in terms of campaign finance transparency, and Republican candidate Pete Domenici Jr. says he plans to join them. ‘We don’t have any resistance to that,’ Turner said of releasing reports more often than the law requires. ‘It’s just that we haven’t been focusing on following every single campaign on, you know, who’s proving that they’re more transparent than the other.’ ‘I have started off this campaign acknowledging from the beginning that I’m self-funding a significant portion of it, and I will continue to self-fund significant portions of it even while I’m raising money,’ Turner said. ‘I’m raising money from oil and gas industry. I’m raising money from businesses that care about the future of this state. And when we report, we’re going to report and everyone will know about it.’” [Blog, Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics, 1/19/10]